Today's discussion question

[alice wellintown]

I suspect that I am misreading Ian here....the idea that the mystical
experience is ineffable, as William James defines it in his famous
definition is, I now suspect, what Ian is getting at.

And, I agree with James and like his definition.

But to argue that mystical experience and, say traditonal religion,
the great religions, organized religion...etc. is at odds with
mystical experience doesn't make any sense. There is tension,
certainly.

Take a look at Thomas Merton. What about the current Pope? All that
money, tradition, power, bad history...but that man is a mystical one;
he has experienced the devine. His practical approach to the church
bank, to the homosexual faction in Rome, to his visit to Brasil, these
may seem compromises a mystic would not make, but this is not the
history of mystical experience.